In the pizza and food-to-go industries, millions of orders of side-item type products are sold each year. Examples of such products include breadsticks, chicken wings, and pizza slices. One of the most prevalent types of cartons used for packaging these products is the corrugated paperboard carton. This carton comes in both folder type and clamshell type. The folder type carton is shipped as a flat blank and then erected into a carton at the point of use (i.e., the pizzeria). The clamshell type carton is erected in the factory and then shipped as an open clamshell.
These cartons can be categorized into two groups based on status of wall engagement. The two groups are (1) wall-engaged cartons and (2) non-wall-engaged cartons. A “wall-engaged carton” is one in which at least two wall structures are engaged one to the other, such that when the cover of the carton is in opened disposition those two wall structures remain in an erected position. A “non-wall-engaged carton” is one in which none of the wall structures of the carton are engaged one to another.
Various structural arrangements can be used for engaging adjacent walls of a carton. Some arrangements allow for efficient erection of a blank into a box, others do not. One particular structure that allows for efficient erection of a box is a non-folding wall-engagement tab. This invention is disclosed in Correll U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,949 granted Jan. 17, 1995.
Another structural consideration for side-item cartons is having an article-retaining structure for holding a sauce cup, for example, as well as perhaps some other article. Many pizzerias pack one or more sauce cups with their side-item products. Traditionally these cups have been placed next to the food product. However, there are two problems with this. First, the sauce cup often gets greasy. Second, some health departments consider it to be unsanitary for articles handled by human hands to come into contact with a ready-to-eat food product. As a result, it would be desirable to have a way of packing sauce cups and other articles so that these articles are positioned out of contact with the food product.
One prior art box has been invented to address this problem. Known as the “Kickers Box,” it is used by Domino's Pizza for packaging chicken strips (which the company calls Kickers™). Essentially, the Kickers Box is a small version of the company's hexagonal D-type pizza box except with a special compartment at the front third of the box for holding two sauce cups. The compartment is created by a plurality of three interconnected panels. The first panel is attached to the top edge of the front wall of the box and is disposed parallel to the bottom panel. It has two holes in it for holding two sauce cups. The second panel is attached to the first panel and is disposed perpendicular to the first panel and serves as support for the first panel. The third panel is attached to the second panel and is disposed perpendicular to the second panel and is tucked underneath the connecting panels that connect the two diagonal walls to the front wall structure of the box.
This box is particularly defined in VanEsley et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,586 granted May 27, 2003.
However, the Kickers Box has at least three drawbacks. First, it consumes a relatively large amount of material and, therefore, is relatively expensive. Second, it contains numerous flaps and, therefore, is time-consuming and awkward to erect from a blank into a box. Third, after product has been placed into the box, closing the cover on the box can be time-consuming due to the many cover flaps that need to be manipulated for tuck-in. In view of these three problems, it would be desirable to have a carton for side-item products that is material-saving, cost efficient, and easy-to-handle.
One particular carton that has a small number of flaps and, thereby, is efficient for handling is a carton disclosed in Correll U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,651. However, even though it has only one cover flap, the side walls of the carton each have a flap attached to the front end which requires folding prior to erecting the blank into a box. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a carton with side walls free of flaps altogether. Another potential drawback of this carton is that it has no article-retaining structure for holding a sauce cup separately from the food product carried in the carton. As previously discussed, the Kickers Box has an article-retaining structure for holding a sauce cup. However, it requires substantial additional material in manufacture of the blank. So it would be desirable to have a carton with a material-efficient article-retaining structure.
In short, it would be highly desirable to provide a food carton that overcomes the above-described problems and drawbacks associated with packaging side-item products.